New Year’s resolutions as Rockets enter 2025

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Cheers, Rockets fans, Welcome to The Logger Line, an exclusive
podcast from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven
ninety The Logger Line. It's proudly served to you by
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Speaker 2 (00:20):
It is good.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Oh yeah, Red Nation, Get ready, Ready, get ready. The
Logger Line starts now.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Welcome aboard, Welcome in to another new episode of the
Logger Line, has always served to you courtesy of Clutch
to the logger of Carback Brewing.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm Ben Dubos, your host again, joined by Polo Alves.
We had taken a little bit of a brief holiday hiatus,
if you will, over the past couple of weeks. Happy
New Year to all of you listening, by the way,
But we're back now and there's a lot to catch
up on as the Rockets enter the first few days
of January twenty twenty five. So since we last spoke,
the Rockets have gone five and two, and overall, that's

(01:07):
pretty good. You shouldn't complain about that in any seven
game stretch on the NBA calendar. They entered this weekend
at twenty two and eleven, number three in a deep
Western conference, and they've got a couple of high profile
home games coming up against the Celtics and the Lakers.
That said, the process in which they got to five
and two was definitely a bit uneven, and so we'll
get into that on today's show. They went four to

(01:29):
zero against the weaker portion of the schedule, four games
against the Pelicans, twice, the Raptors, the Hornets. We talked
about that being a real opportunity coming out of the
NBA Cup and a tougher stretch to open December, and
kudos to the Rockets for taking advantage of that. But
then they also lost back to back home games against
the Timberwolves and the Heat, both with double digit leads
in the second half, and both of those really showcase

(01:51):
what I think we both know is the clear flaw
of this team. It's the offensive side of the ball
and specifically, where do they turn when things get sticky
in the half late in close games against good defenses.
The Timberwolves went on a fifteen to two run to
close it out, and then Miami two nights later had
basically a seventeen to two run that closed out that
game as well. Rockets added a few points in garbage

(02:14):
time to massage the final score, but the silver lining,
at least this week is that New Year's Day matchup
against Dallas, which the Rockets did win, and perhaps the
biggest variable that got them over the finish line in
that one was someone that we weren't even talking about
when we last had a POD two weeks ago, and
that's Cam Whitmore. Over these last seven games since coming

(02:37):
back from the G League, Cam has had three really
big games, one in Toronto, one in New Orleans where
he went for a career high twenty seven, and then
the one against the MAVs where he scored eighteen points
in the first seventeen minutes helped the Rockets overcome what
was a double digit deficit in the first half, and
then postgame, Imo Judoka had some strong praise for Cam's

(02:57):
defense as well. So in the spirit of New Year's
Day and the new calendar year of twenty twenty five,
I want this show to list some resolutions for the
Rockets in the new year, and I'll start with what
I think is already happening. They've got to play Cam Whitmore,
and right now it's actually pretty easy for them to

(03:18):
do that because probably the lowest point of the last
couple of weeks. Tarry Eason has not played in the
last seven games for the Rockets with legswortus. It's the
same area and historgically repaired lower left leg, and I'm
sure we'll talk about that more as we move our
way through today's pod. And in addition to not having
Tari and Men, Thompson still has one more game left

(03:40):
on his suspension for tossing Tyler Herro around like a
rag doll the other night. But even when you get
Amn and Tari back, I think there's still a pretty
clear path to get Cam fifteen minutes or so per game,
simply by giving him the minutes that were initially going
to Read Shepherd to start the year, then to Aaron
Holliday in recent weeks, because it's not like you really

(04:02):
need a so called point guard in that spot. You've
got Ima Rudoka basically staggering Fred van Fleet and Jalen
Green as the lead guard for forty eight minutes. And
we know Amn Thompson when he plays, and he's only
got one more game on his suspension, he's got some
ball handling point guardabilities as well, And then you know
there's certainly going to be some games where Cam deserves

(04:24):
more than fifteen minutes. But it's just way easier to
go from fifteen to thirty minutes than it is to
go from zero to fifteen because if his play warrants it,
just like we saw the other night against the MAVs,
it's not hard to put him in the closing lineup
in place of someone else. Against Dallas, it was in
place of Jabari and so I think when you look
at the bigger picture of this team, we know what

(04:48):
the flaws are offensively, and so for someone like Cam Whitmore, again,
it's not easy to go from zero to fifteen. If
he's not playing at all. There are song stylistic changes
that you have to incorporate to have him on the
floor and to maximize his skill set unique blend of athleticism,
length and power. But if he's on the court for

(05:11):
fifteen twenty minutes and he's playing well, it's not that
hard to go from thirty to thirty five. And there
are some games where you need it because this team
can be offensively challenged. They need to just have someone
that can get out in transition or make some tough
shots by elevating over guys from the mid range from three.
We know he started the year slow on threes. That's
come around of late, and so I think this is

(05:34):
just an easy decision for ima Udoka to keep Kim
Whitmore in the rotation even when a Men Thompson, Atari
Eesen knock On Wood are back. It's not that Cam
is a perfect player. He's just twenty years old. We
know what they wanted him to work on in the
G League. He's got to make quicker decisions. He needs
to be more aware off the ball defensively, YadA YadA.
But at the end of the day, he's a bucket

(05:55):
getter and that's what this team desperately needs at times.
With a defense already elite, it doesn't take much offensively
for this team to compete with almost anyone, and Cam
went more for really the second half of the year
could be the guy that gets them over that hump.
And at just twenty years old and already one of
the best athletes in my opinion, in the entire NBA,

(06:16):
he should only get better. And so that's my first
New York's resolution here. They've got to play Cam. I
understand why they didn't initially. You know, he came out
Cole from three point range. They were high on Reed
Shepherd after Summer League. In the preseason, Tari was coming
back from injury. This is an abnormally deep team. I
get it. But at this point it's just pretty clear
to me that Cam is more ready for real NBA

(06:38):
games than Reid, and he's got a lot more upside
than our holiday. So with that in mind, I think
keeping Cam in the rotation is clearly the play polo.
Are we in agreement on that.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Yeah, but I did kind of want to. It's not
necessarily a different perspective because I do think that they
have to play Cam more. I think he's played well
enough to warrant it. I think that, especially defensively, he's
been more aware, especially in the in the last game.
But I'll just add a couple of extra angles to
do with what you just said about getting a new

(07:11):
year's trust, a new year's resolution forgive me on a
team that relies so much on its defensive intensity, right,
it's mostly not about your ability to play defense. It's
mostly about your awareness in your commitment. Because it's really
hard to convince, you know, guys one through nine in
their audition to give it there all every single minute

(07:31):
that they're out there on the floor if there's one person,
because on defense, you only need one person to make
a rave mistake or to not be paying attention for
it to fall apart, right, And so it kind of
builds on itself. The way the Rockets play defense builds
on itself and just effort every single possession and you
reap the rewards of that, and that feeds your and

(07:52):
that feeds the players, and it makes them show that
effort possession after position after possession. If that, if there's
the defense falls apart and you give up an easy
bucket that can very easily compile, and that's how and
that's how you get those tractors where sometimes it feels
like the other team's just scoring it will.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Right.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
That's the biggest difference between certainly because if when you
look at the Rockets individually, right, we obviously have a
manentary warrants In defender Tillan Brooks is a really good defender.
Debari has improved, but it looks better because of what
I'm saying. Feather and wheat has declined, but he but
different still works. Difference still works with open thing on

(08:34):
who's improved, but some of that improvement is because of
what it was talking about. Divorus Smith has improved, but
he's not an elite defender. Killer Green is not an
elite defender. Thread which not an elite defender anymore. Why
does it work? It works because of what I just said.
And so it's extra punishing for team at the Rockets
to play someone which is the case with Cam at

(08:54):
times one last game, but it is sometimes that can
fall asleep defensively. Is you're punishing the moral of the
entire team because of it. And you know, when so
much of your identities tied to the insane levels of
effort that the Rockets put in every every single night,
that's especially punishing, and that's you know, sometimes that's going

(09:16):
to weigh in too. Heavi a league compared to what
the expectation is for someone to get mints, because Kem
is a breadth of fresh hair offensively in the sense
of the way he puts the ball in the basket
and having the and I guess, okay on top of
it and say, I really like him with more. I

(09:36):
think he can be atl and Brown type prospect. I
think he's insane athletically. I think he tries, but I
think he and I think he has that a little
bit of that sway and that moxie about him where
all the great scorers have. Obviously needs to walk in defensively,
the tools are all there as well. He comes in
front of guys he can he can help weak side,

(09:57):
he's strong like, he's not going to get bullied, He's
could be found there like, there's a lot to work
with there. So just I don't want this to come
off to us to negative thought Camp, because I do
agree with you, it's definitely one of the guys that
needs to be getting more playing time. But I wanted
to kind of head a little bit and say some

(10:17):
of the stuff that people aren't saying because Camp's young,
like really young, and this team has a real lack
for what Camp's bringing us. And we all know we've
been around long enough to know how bendom is. On
Twitter and on social media, it's very easy. If a
guy is young and a guy is playing well, it
goes from zero to one hundred really really quickly. And

(10:41):
so that's why I wanted to kind of temper a
little bit of what the discussion has been because there's
a lot of people out there that you guys have
heard enough people saying that camp with markets be playing,
even people say he should start in place of Jaal
and Green, Right, So I just wanted to even offensively
normally and I I'll give us out on this as well.
Uh there's a great tweet and a great threat of

(11:04):
a of a discussion between perhaps at right at Red
ninety four on Twitter. Everybody knows about him and someone
who's up and coming, but a lot of people haven't
you know, noticed that he's you know, hit I guess
been a great voice for for discussion on rockets Twitter
and talking about them. Williams at Williams on Twitter that.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Will with three l's U m C.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
He's you know, one of the one of the guys
that that does the right treat podcast which you guys
can then go and check out as well. Just one
of the good like one of the best up and
coming accounts on Twitter. He's been that way for a year.
And he was having this discussion with Red red ninety
four on Twitter and he brought up some stats and
he's not like he knows how to interpret stats, but

(11:51):
he's not a stat nerd. So he'll look at the film,
he'll go through play by play. He follow him on Twitter,
you'll see like he does all of the homework right.
And he brought up that he compared rookie jail and
Green and kem with more this season, including when he
was playing in the gi Lei, which obvious we will

(12:13):
inflate the stats. But even then, even with that inflation
coming from his play against a weaker Camp in the
G League. On spot up, Skal and Green has been
better on ISO, skal and Green is way better, Like
he's like Kim with more. I guess I'll go to
catch the conclusions before after a list the stats on jumpers,

(12:34):
Jalen Greens better on SIS percentage, jal Green's way better
as well. Just to say what just to say that offensively,
we see that Camp's production is you know, a lot
of points were up on the board, right, But don't
confuse that with the ability to generate shots.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
He's a play finisher, not a play creator. I think
that's what you're saying exactly.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
So, and Killen Green at this point, even though we
wish he would be a better play finisher, he's a
way better play. He's a better, way better to creator
for himself and for others. Even though it's not necessarily strong.
So it's just that Kem, whatmore is literally has the
worst assist percentage in the league for his position for
the minutes that he plays, like even if he was

(13:21):
just for in a per possession basis, it's really terrible.
He is also one of the worst tutors off the
drivel or an assisted attempt as well. Right, So just
to say, let's not confuse the fact that he's been
good off absolutely because he gets put backs, he runs it,

(13:42):
he runs in transition, he gets spot of opportunities which
he has been making. That's all well and good. I
just wanted to provide a little bit of the new
arms that, yes, Keem's exciting and Kem is going to
be a great player. In my opinion, he's still a
twenty year old sophomore. And even though Killen Gream's not

(14:04):
been having the best season, and when we've talked about
that at nauseum on this podcast, I'm pushing it too
far the other way. What I'm going to say is
a hot take, but he's not close to what Killen
is and he's out close to providing what Kiln provides.
Even though Killen has been very deficient in what has
been providing. It's just if you don't have Killen out there.

(14:26):
If you replace Kiln with Cam Whitmore, you lose a
lot of them, a lot of the south gration for
himself and for others. You lose a lot of the
ball handling ability because other than for there's nobody on
this team that can do it. I mean, Aman Thompson
can do it as well, just not as safe with
the ball in sense. And we are a team that
is that relies very heavily upon not turning the ball over.

(14:47):
It's another turning turnovers. Others are once again contribute the
same as defensive breakdowns, because it's very exasperating for someone
who's putting all that effort on defense to go on offense,
I instantly turn the ball over and give up two
points on the other end. So those are especially important.
And so I'm not even saying that can with More

(15:09):
won't be a better player than Joan Green by this
that next season. I'm saying for what the context of
this team is, and I ain't gonna on for a
long time. I apologize for the long runt. I'm just
saying we can be somewhere in the middle where Yes,
kem with Moore is really exciting. Yes, with more deserves
more playing time. Give him twenty minutes a game if

(15:30):
he's hot, give him twenty five, give him thirty minutes
a game if he's playing really well. And you feel
like you don't necessarily need the differences, the nuanced differences
between him and Jail, and you don't necessarily need what
Kailn is bringing you. You can even take the minutes
away from Jail in certain circumstances, I'm not saying. And
then nothing that is anything wrong about that the radical

(15:51):
let's you know, switch him, switch his role with Jail
and let's start him at the two or and stuff
like that, like that's out of control. That it's unfair
expectations for camp and it's not good basketball discussion, and

(16:11):
it's setting him up for failure, which is listen, we
are in a situation because we are good where we
can bring these guys along slowly and not and they're
not having to deal with the same problems that all
the guys in the SEVERER stiles dealt with. So let's
continue doing that. It's been paying diffidence with Cam, it's
been you know, he's been playing a lot better recently,

(16:33):
so much so that he makes me reconsider a little
bit of what I was willing to give up for
a guy like Daron Fox, which we will talk about later,
because he's showed so much more and because he was
mostly viewed as kind of a throw in those packages.
He's chin and he's and he has improved a lot,
and he has changed the calculus and a lot of
things that we'll talk about as we go forward on

(16:55):
this and in the next spots. That's all there, Let's
not it's all same.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah. Trade deadline a little over a month away February sixth,
so we're getting close. We'll definitely talk about that more
as we make our way through today's spot, and then
in the weeks ahead leading up to that, we'll see
what opportunities are or not there for a fell stone
in the rockets. I just think so much of the
Cam versus Jalen debate is misguided, because, I mean, for starters,
those two have a great chemistry together. Jalen has talked

(17:24):
about it in the past, wanting to play with more
elite athletes like Kim wentmore like him in Thompson. I
think the idea and we've seen at times this playing
out on the floor. Is that when there's more pressure
on the rim beyond Jalen, when he's not the only
guy who can really collapse the defense and get those

(17:45):
paint touches, so to speak, then it gives him a
lot more room with which to operate. And so when
you see the way those two play together, you can
see the joy they have, the chemistry. We don't need
to do this comparision, especially when Cam has enough length,
enough power, enough versatility to play a number of different roles. Again,

(18:06):
against the MAVs, he was playing in place of Jabari
Smith Junior. So it's not just about Cam operating as
a shooting guard. No, he's a play finisher who has
the height, the length, the athleticism to play in a
lot of different roles. And this is a rocket starting
lineup and oftentimes closing lineup that other than all per
In Shongoon doesn't have a consistent scorer. I mean, we

(18:29):
can break it down into creation versus finishing, but the
bottom line is can you put the ball in the
bucket enough to avoid these prolonged droughts like we saw
fifteen to two, seventeen to two in the fourth quarters
against the Timberwolves and the heat, good defenses in the
half court, and there's a lot of different ways that
you can use Cam Whitmore, especially at such a young
stage in his career, to achieve the same goal. It

(18:51):
doesn't need to be a one for one comparison with
Jalen Green or anyone else. It's about simply having Cam
Whitmore in the rotation to where it's not a massive
stylistic shift. He's available, and then if he plays well
in those ten to fifteen minutes that you give him,
then you have that as an option going down the
stretch in the fourth quarter if it's a game where
things are getting sticky and you need to, you know,

(19:12):
diversify your attack to your points. On Cam's defense, they're
certainly fair as young as he is and with the
weaknesses he's shown to this point. However, beyond just the
usual you know, growth of young prospects, they get better
in year two compared to year one. I think there's
a couple of other things that are important to keep
in mind with him this year. I think there are
fewer weak links in the chain, and so when it

(19:34):
comes to stuff like off ball awareness, I think being
the guy who stands out is oftentimes one of the
most powerful incentives or motivating factors for younger players. And
even last year the Rockets were a good defense, they
weren't really a great defense. They helped around six, seven,
eight most of the year. This year they've been at

(19:55):
two pretty much the entire season. Only Oklahoma City has
been better. This is a truly elite defen We've seen
even the weaker defenders like Jald Green, like all Parin
Shongoon take a step forward. And so if Cam Whitmore
is potentially the only guy who is not holding up
his end of the bargain, if he's the only weak
linked in the chain, then it's not just letting down

(20:16):
the coaching staff, it's letting down the other four guys
that you're playing with. That can be a very powerful
motivating force for young players to not want to let
your teammates down. And even compared to rookie year Kim
Where when he was nineteen, I also think the surrounding
construct of this roster, the fact that they're even better
defensively overall, I think that makes him more likely to

(20:38):
do the little things to stay committed, to stay bought
in at the other point that I would raise with
Cam because of his length, He's a low key, really
good rebounder when used in the right ways. We saw
him get a couple of those against the MAVs. And
for a team that really prioritizes being the best or
close to the best rebounding team in the NBA as

(20:59):
a big part of its defensive formula and not giving
up too many second chance points. Then having a guy
with the length the hops of Cam with a group
that oftentimes, especially the starting group, isn't super balfcy when
you look at guys like Fred, like Dylan, like Jabari,
even Shongoon to some extent. Then having an elite athlete

(21:22):
like Cam that's versatial enough to box out some of
the longer, rangier wings lots of different positions. His ability
as a rebounder can help you a little bit on
the defensive end of the floor as well, simply by
preventing second and third opportunities. So all in all, I
think he's going to get more looks. I don't think
it's a guarantee that he's necessarily going to play more

(21:43):
than say, fifteen minutes per night, But if he plays
fifteen minutes per night. That's enough to leave the door
open to get from fifteen to twenty five or thirty
if his play on a given night warrants it. Again,
it's so much easier to go from fifteen to thirty
than it is from zero to fifteen. I think we're
at a point now where we've a stablished the baseline
somewhere in there, let's say twelve to eighteen range, and

(22:04):
then if his play warrants that, it could be scaled
up on a given night. Before we move on from
Cam to talk about other topics, I want to address
the elephant in the room, which is the awkward postgame
interview that he gave after the Dallas game that's been
making the rounds. You talked about the back and forth
that ra Hot and Will had on Twitter on Thursday.

(22:25):
That was one of the things that showed up at
the top of my feet. One of the others that
I saw discussed in a number of different ways was
reaction to the two minutes of let's just call it awkwardness
that Cam gave after his great game against the MAVs,
basically saying he doesn't know if he's done enough to
get a consistent role, and I think I understand where

(22:50):
the concern comes from. And as someone that's in the media,
I'll admit it was one of the more awkward interviews
that I've seen. But I also think, at least this stage,
some of the concern is premature, and I want to
explain why, both as a fan of this team but
also someone that is involved in media coverage of the

(23:10):
Rockets and understands the context a little bit more and
how these interviews take place in locker rooms and you
know how that sort of correlates with the way players
interact and don't interact with their teammates on a daily basis.
I think it's important not to punish players for honesty,

(23:30):
and I think that's something that im Udoka believes wholeheartedly.
Emay was asked about it in an interview he had
on Thursday with Matt Thomas on Sports Talk seven ninety
and he basically said, I have no problem with it.
I am not a sensitive guy. I want my guys
to be able to express themselves. And for the concern

(23:52):
that's out there about oh, is he going to be
frustrated or bitter? Is this kind of impact who he
is in the locker room, how he is with his
co which is his teammates. I think even if he
didn't articulate it to the media in that way, what
you're worried about is the underlying emotion. It's not so
much just two minutes on New Year's Night, January first,

(24:17):
that may or may not stay with him. You could
even argue that maybe it's good for him to get
it off his chest and now he could move on.
I think if you actually listen to that interview and
its entirety, it's worth noting that when he's asked about
things that I would consider micro. Someone asked him about
his improved defense, which he may talked about postgame. Someone

(24:40):
asked him about the energy and spark he brought off
the bench helping the Rockets overcome what I think was
an eleven point deficit in the first half and flip
it to I think a nine point lead at halftime.
He answered those normally, and he had some insightful observations.
The only times that got awkward were when reporters were

(25:00):
asking him to tie it into the macro. Basically, do
you think this proved something to the coaching staff to
give you a more consistent role. Have you learned what
they wanted you to learn in the G League. I
think there's some bitterness and frustration there for sure, but
I think that's to be expected. We've talked about it

(25:22):
going back to the off season. It's hard for a
guy who's just twenty years old and at nineteen last year,
as raw as he was, he was still an impactful
player as a rookie for a competent Rockets team that
went forty one and forty one in a tough West
and had that long winning streak in March. Cam was
a big part of that. And so to go from

(25:43):
the highs of that in year one at nineteen years
old and all of these guys, if you're one of
the top one percent at your profession in the world
and you're this good, this young, of course you're really confident.
It is a bitter pill to swallow to go back
to what is effective the minor leagues in year two,
all for the sake of let's be honest. The guy

(26:05):
who basically bumped Cam from the rotation was Reed Shepherd,
a guy who has not proven it at the NBA
level at all and was basically a six man in
college last year. It's a lot to ask, and then
I don't care if he says it to the media
or not. You are kidding yourself if you don't think
that it's difficult for him, and you know, it's not

(26:26):
like last night was out of left field. There have
been other interviews he had to shoot around a few
days ago where someone asked him a question about it
was basically the same theme of do you think you're
showing something to the coaches to continue getting run And

(26:47):
his response was and he did that one with a smile.
I thought I had done that already against or after
the MAVs game. There weren't the smiles. It was a
little more awkward, it was a little more raw. But
I also think there was a little more more understandable
frustration because it felt like to me, that was proof
of concept, that was validation of what Cam Whitmore can

(27:09):
be to this team. I know we also had the
good games against the Raptors and the Pelicans. I don't
really count those as much, at least in terms of
the broader narrative because those are awful opponents. Also, those
were road games, so there were maybe like two reporters
and the interviews last like thirty seconds, because there's only
so many questions that will be asked when it's only
two reporters, and also the Jonathan Fagan retirement tour. This

(27:31):
was the first home game in which Cam went off
against a really good team, the defending Western Conference champions
and the team, by the way, that was closest to
you in the West innings from now two and a
half games back of the Rockets for the three seeds.
So the Rockets have built themselves a little bit of
a cushion to see him go out against a really
good team like that have a big game. How is

(27:54):
he not going to think, especially as young as he is,
whether he says it or not to the media, how
is he not going to think on some level, why
weren't you doing this all along? We could have been
doing this from the outset of this season. That's natural,
that's human nature. Think of it. If in whatever job
you do, Powow or any of our listeners, if you

(28:16):
think you're better than someone that's ahead of you in
the rotation, and you get the opportunity, maybe they're outsick
for a few days, and you do better than that
person who's getting more prosiege, getting more pay whatever it
may be, How are you not going to think to yourself, Oh,
I should have been doing this the whole time. If

(28:37):
you have a good day and show how capable you
are in that position, that's human nature. The point is
not so much the underlying motivation, because whether he says
it to the media or not, that's going to be there.
The point is whether he carries it moving forward, because yeah,
if he does act like that the whole rest of

(28:58):
the season and there's this viidual bitterness frustration to where
he's a mal content and it's just not a functional
work environment around his teammates, around his coaches, then okay,
that would be weird. But I don't think we're anywhere
near that point yet. This was one interview after a
night in which it felt like it was the ultimate

(29:19):
victory lap, the proof concept, the validation, whatever you want
to call it. The way I think this plays out
is he got this off his chest and now everyone
moves on. And if this continues to happen interview after interview,
then sure you can be alarmed. But I just don't
think that this in and of itself, especially on a

(29:40):
team where Imo Udoka wants these guys to be honest. Again,
he doesn't want these guys to be super sensitive and
walking on eggshells. If he needed to express himself to
maybe get it off his chest, then let him and
now we can all move on. I think that's what
the Rockets are hoping for out of this. I think
that's sort of what Cam was doing. And I also
think the situation will naturally resolve itself because as he

(30:03):
stays in the rotation, I think we both expect he
will for the reasons we just laid out, the questions
are going to be more micro anyway. The reason he's
getting so many macro questions about have you proven to
the rockets is because he hasn't been a rotation fixture
just yet, and there's still a little bit of a
question about how exactly are things going to look when
a man comes back from the suspension and when knock

(30:24):
On wood Tari comes back from his leg injury. If
he stays in the rotation, then there aren't going to
be these macro questions because everybody knows, okay, this is
the way things are, and instead the questions will just
be about what did you do right or what did
you do wrong? And a given night, and so the
interviews won't be the way they were after Wednesday's game,
simply because the nature of the questions will change when

(30:46):
the nature of his role changes. So that's the way
I would close the loop on this whole discussion with
Cam his role and also his attitude, because I've seen
some trying to tie it in with the reasons he
may have fallen in the draft in twenty twenty three
and some people thought to be top five pick, and
he said, how fel to the Rockets at twenty not
saying it's a nothing burger, not saying that you can't

(31:09):
have a raised eyebrow. But I would not overreact to
one interview. I think a lot of this is just
human nature. He got it off his chest, and so
for now I would focus much more on the quality
of his play on the court than the awkwardness of
that two minute interview or whatever it was in the

(31:29):
Rockets' locker room after the game. Pallo, I know you
look at this from a little bit of different lens.
I look at it somewhat trying to balance the basketball
considerations with also knowing the context of media interviews, and
even if some guys don't say it to the media.
I know that while they're thinking it anyway, and so
in terms of how it affects them moving forward, it's
all the same, where they say it outright or not.

(31:50):
You look at it as something of an outsider. What
was your take on this as far as you know
Cam's emotions after the game and where we go from here.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
I think it's definitely not nothing, and I think it's
definitely less than a lot of people are making it
out to be. I think it's as you said, it's
human nature and especially and I think everybody feels that
at whatever they do. I mean, I mean your job,
I mean, if you do sports. I mean listen, I
remember back when, back when we started doing this strowut stuff.

(32:21):
Back when I first started, I felt like, listen, I'm
a lot better than a lot of the people out them.
I get to do this for a living, and well,
I put into work and eventually I got more opportunities,
and when I got them and I felt like I
did a good job, I would post a part of
it as well. It's especially so for athletes. Listen, these

(32:41):
are probably the most competitive people in the world. This
is the one percent of the one percent of the
one percent of about what the basketball player is, right,
and so if these guys were not competitive, especially played
for in Meidoka, then something would be tremendously wrong. But
that time I will say it wasn't the happiest of comments, right,

(33:04):
or the I guess it wasn't. It isn't something that
I like listening to, but it's something that you can
understand when you when you look at even the way
he can play. He plays with a certain edge, right,
And we can't have it both ways. You can't want
players to have that type of ed and have that
type of motivation and have that kind of lack of

(33:28):
fear of the moment and at the same time want
them to be robots and every single other in every
single other facet of whipping an athlete.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
It is.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
But what I wanted to highlight most of all is
that this little incident of sorts also highlighted something that's
even more important than that, which is it is very
clear where the authority lies within this looker, and it's
with I was asked about it. He didn't dodd the question,
He didn't try to kind of gloss over it or

(34:02):
or even outright defend with more or outright to condemn it. No,
we mineogo was what a leader of mine is. He said, Hey,
we talked about it. We had talked about it. Kem
knows what he needs to do, and so if he
keeps doing it, he'll get more minutes. Listen, it's it's
not he wasn't car off car right. It wasn't something

(34:25):
he was negligent prior to the interview happening. It was
something that was talked about in house, was handled in house,
and Kim with more in the heat of the moment,
let some of it slip to the outside. It's it good.
It's not necessarily good, but it isn't anywhere near a
disaster or anything like that. And I overall think that

(34:46):
a fan base in general kind of took it the
way that I'm kind of portraying it. So it's not
it's not a huge deal. It is the side of
it's healthy. But most important of all, I liked what
what it showed of how he may loo Cut exercises
his leadership, and I think we have the right guy
on the job as far as the head fooks goes on,

(35:07):
as far as a leader force slanting those Yeah, I
think this was.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Much more about the Rockets than it was about Kim Whitmore.
That was the characterization that I sort of took issue
with that, Oh, is this why he fell in the draft? No,
I think this is more reflective of the Rockets as
a team under emy Udoka. This is the coach who
called Lebron James on his home floor in Staples Center
or whatever the hell it is now in La a

(35:31):
soft ass boy. This is a Rockets team that seems
to get in a new fight every single week. The
Rockets are not trying to play pr games and be
very guarded in what they say, for trying to step
on eggshells for fear of hurting feelings around the league
or hurting feelings inside the locker room. No, they expressed themselves.

(35:54):
They are open. I think this is a product of that,
and I'm not going to say until they win a
championship that I know this is clearly the way to go.
But I think a lot of people are looking at
this through the norms of other teams and other structures,
and that's just not what ima Udoka is about. This
is a team that plays with an edge Cam does individually.

(36:14):
But I think collectively. It's just the culture that they
bought in, and so I think they're honest, they communicate,
they're transparent, and I think if you're paying attention. That's
why we had these discussions hell on this pod going
back to the offseason about the difficulty of sending him
to the G League and why. You know, basketball lizes
with consideration, but there's a lot of other factors to
have to go into it as well, because, yeah, it

(36:35):
is a bitter pill to swallow. As good as he is,
this is a rare situation with the roster, but you
can't expect a guy who's twenty years old nineteen at
the end of last season to understand the nuance of
all of that. It is very rare for a player
who contributed winning as much as he did as a
rookie put up you know, on a per thirty six basis,
some of the best numbers from a rookie we've seen

(36:56):
in a while. It's a bitter pill to swallow. I
hope he storted from it. From a basketball standpoint, it
looks like he has, and as far as the other
sides of the game, I think I would give it
a little more time before worrying too much about last sight.
You can sort of have a watchful eye, raised eyebrow.
I get all of that, but I wouldn't worry too

(37:17):
much about what this says about cam and why he
fell in the draft, what it means about his future,
how bad is in is he on the organization? Again,
I think a lot of this is just redidual frustration
for the last couple of months. He had a big
game and a big moment against a very good opponent.
Even without Luca, the Maps are still a very good team,
and I think that was his victory laugh of sports

(37:39):
after what I'm sure were the probably the most difficult
two months of his professional life, given what he had
proven before that step down in the G League. So
if it only happens once, I tend to think this
is him just blowing off some steam and now you know,
we all move forward, and I fully expect that Cambley
an important part of the game plan when the Rockets
play against the Celtics and the Lakers this weekend. Certainly
the game that Celtics is no Himan, and we'll see

(38:01):
if Tari Easton is available at the end of the weekend.
Against the Lakers, we can hope for that, but I'll
actually use that as an opportunity to transition to my
second resolution, which is we need a healthy leg for
Tari Eason. I think when we're talking about the same
body part that cost him most of his sophomore season,

(38:21):
and he had surgically repaired last March, and we're going
into an off season which will be extension eligible, and
we've seen the highs. We know how good he can be, honestly,
one of the fifty or so best players in the
NBA already when he is right as he was in
October and November. To see him struggling with the same
injury again, it's concerning, and there's been some frustration because

(38:46):
it feels like it appeared out of nowhere. The one
criticism I would have for the Rockets, I don't think
they should have labeled it injury management. I think they
initially put that coming out of the NBA Cup because
they didn't think it would be this long. It's been
almost three weeks laid in that semifinal on December fourteenth.
I think they were hoping that the shortness would resolve
itself more quickly than it did, and at least to

(39:09):
some degree. I think this is to be expected. The
question is how much coming off of surgery. When we
talk about, you know, lower body injuries, oftentimes in the NBA,
it's a multi year recovery process. We talked about that
Steven Adams. Stevens sort of said at multiple junctures this
season that he looks at it as a two year
recovery process and just because he's able to play this year,

(39:31):
he's not going to be fully back until a year
from now. That the first year back is still something
of a recovery. And perhaps that's the case with Tari
as well. But nonetheless, to see the same injury, to
see him going through issues with the same body part,
with the same injury, for a guy as young as

(39:53):
he is and as promising as he is. In the
case of tarr Eason, I get the alarm, and as
soon as it was clear there were shortness, I think
the Rockets should have put him on the injury report
as a lower left leg soreness rather than an injury management.
I think injury management implies that there's something strategic to
it in that, you know, maybe they were just given

(40:14):
him a week off light schedule with the end of
the NBA Cups, so maybe you could easily, you know,
turn one game off into you know, a week to
just rest up on the couch. Basically, once one game
turned to two and two turned to three, it was
clear there was more to it, and so in my opinion,

(40:35):
it's not injury management. No, there's soreness that at this
point was clearly unexpected because he's missed seven games almost
three weeks in counting. So I don't like the initial label.
But other than that technicality, I don't have the frustration
with the team that a lot of people on social

(40:55):
media and read it seem to. I think ima Udoka
in particular, if you're listening to these press conferences, he's
being open and transparent with what he knows and talking
about how you know, they want the pain. They say
it's subsided, but they want it to get to zero
before they risk him, especially at this juncture of the
season in December and January. It might be different if
it's the playoffs, but with such a long time to

(41:18):
go in the grind of an a two game season,
and it's not like they' fallen off a cliff again.
They've missed seven games, but they are five and two
in this stretch, they can be a little bit more conservative,
So other than the initial label being a little bit misleading,
I don't really have an issue with how the Rockets
have handled this. The one criticism that I would have,

(41:39):
and this is not so much of the Rockets specifically,
but more just the NBA, and I would honestly say
broader sports when it comes to injuries. I wish there
was a way to talk or at least hear from
trainers in a situation like this, because you know, the
player himself is off limits as he's recovering, and I
understand that, but ima Udoka can only say what he's told,

(42:04):
whatever talking points he's given from the medical team. He's
not a doctor. He doesn't know the particulars. And the
million dollar question here what I think would either calm
fears of the fan base or let us know that
it's caused for serious concern. How much of this is
to be expected coming off that March surgery. And I

(42:28):
don't know the answer to that. I'm not a medical
person either. I don't know how much of this shortness
is just normal something that nine months out, especially when
you go back to playing at the stress of NBA
regular season games is to be expected, and how much
of it is a cause for alarm that maybe the
surgery didn't resolve the underlying issue in the bone, I

(42:49):
honestly don't know, and I don't think Udoka knows. Tari
might notice on extent, but he's not well. Number one,
he's not available, and too, he's not really a medical
person either. The person to really ask would be Jason
Biles or the training staff of the Rockets, and those
guys aren't available. In some degree, it sort of reminds
me of Kyle Tucker and the Astros when people are
getting frustrated with Joe Aspatta for all those weeks and

(43:11):
it turned out to be months that Kyle Tucker missed
with the shin issue, which later turned out to be
a fractured that they didn't know initially. Well, look, Joe
Spotta only knows what he's told from the training staff.
He's trying to focus on putting together a lineup with
whoever's available to him for that day. He doesn't really
know that much other than just a very you know,
surface level briefing that he's given from the trainers of

(43:31):
you know, is Kyle available and is he going to
be available in the near future if he's not available today.
Beyond that, he's not an expert. He hasn't known. I
think the same is true with Starry and the Rockets. Here.
I think I may knows if he's going to be
available that night or has some indication, and you know,
he's got a surface level understanding of what they're trying
to do, but in terms of you know, what's actually

(43:52):
going on from medical perspective, and should we be concerned
or not? Is this to be expected coming off to
surgery he had like last March. That's not IMA's forte.
That's not in his wheelhouse. So I get the frustration
from the fan base and that Tari is an incredibly
important player to this team and I want him to
be healthy. That's why, you know, hopefully this rest does it.

(44:14):
He's had almost three weeks, so hopefully the rest gets
his leg to where it needs to go because when
he is right, and you know, one of the things
I worry a little bit about. If you look at
his percentage, he was actually trending downward for a couple
of weeks before he went out, so it's possible he
was struggling with it even before going out. Now I
know he had the concussion as well, so I'm not
going to say for sure it was related to the leg.
The schedule stiffened up in that stretch as well, so

(44:37):
there's other factors you can point to. But in terms
of the frustration, I understand where it's coming from. I
wish we know more. Even as someone in the credential
media pool, I don't know as much as I would like.
But I don't think necessarily the Rocket's fault. I don't
I certainly don't think it's Emo Udoka's fault. I think
he's being fairly open and transparent and telling us what
he knows when we ask about the situation. I think

(44:59):
a lot of this, and I think back to all
those weeks of uncertainty involving Cal Tucker and the astro.
Just comes down to the fact that the people who
really know what's going on and know if this is
normal or not are not being made available to talk
about the situation. So the rest of us are for
the most part, just guessing. And so as for what
I think, again this is just a guess. I am

(45:21):
fairly optimistic because of the fact that Tari is not
being hidden. We are seeing him before the games. He's
working out on the court, he's getting in a good sweat.
He's being listed as questionable, not out. This is not
like the stretch in February of last year prior to
his surgery, where before they just leaked one day that

(45:42):
he had surgery, was out for the year, and had
a four month recovery timeline before he could even resume
basketball activity, that we were just waiting for the news
to drop because he'd been shut down. No, Tari has
not been shut down. He's doing physical activity. I don't
think they would have him doing that if they were
gravely concerned. And so just reading the context clues and
the fact that they say the pain is upsiding, that
he's getting close, I'm not nearly as concerned as I

(46:04):
was this time of year ago. And you can sell
me on the idea that a lot of this is
just post a standard soreness that just accompanies that type
of major surgery, and maybe it's just a multi year
recovery process, and much the same way it is for
Steven Adams. Even though the Adams injury is a ligament
and this is a bone regardless lower leg surgery is
lower leg surgery. The larger point Tari needs to get healthy,

(46:29):
and while I understand the frustration from the fan base,
I don't think the Rockets, I certainly don't think it's
been mismanaged. I think they're being cautious and shutting him
down until he's healthy and with the team winning games
in the interim again five and two, I don't care
who you play, that's a good seven game stretch at
any point in the NBA calendar for just about any team.
You can't blame them for being cautious with him. I

(46:50):
think behind the scenes they're handling this well, and then
in terms of what they say other than initially listening
in his you know, injury management when in reality it
with soreness. Other than that small little thing, I think
they're being as transparent as they reasonably can, and it's
just a matter of the people who truly know more
information are just not made available to us. Powell, what

(47:11):
are your thoughts on this whole You know Tari eastern
Saga because I know certainly he's one of the most
important players to the long term championship viability of this team,
But I also know he's one of your You know
personal favorite players as well.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Yeah, I think people can I think people can trust
so I think a lot of the time we are
labeled as one of the podcasts that's that's smart pro
team or pro organization, right. But I think, and if
you've been listening to us long enough, we have a
pretty severe critique of how the verycent injury was handled

(47:47):
last season. We have a basically like a thirty or
forty minute segment on it where we were we were
pretty negative, pretty negative about it, and we're pretty critical
of what happened and how not transpotent it to us
US season and how that could potentially impact him long term.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Bright the way let me jump in real quick. For
Friday nights game against the Celtics. He's officially listed as doubtful.
I think that's a change in response to some of
the criticism as well, and I like that and that.
I think what they're telling you is that you should
assume he's out until he plays. They don't want to
rule him out because obviously they're going to let him

(48:24):
go through his pregame workout. He's doing at least some
activity at practices. Again, he's not in hiding. He has
not been shut down, but to avoid this becoming a distraction.
And that's where I think some of the initial confusion
has come from the you know, injury management rather than
soreness label and in recent games being questionable going through

(48:45):
a pre game workout only to be ruled out a
couple of minutes before game time. I think this is
another positive change. Listing him is doubtful. I don't necessarily
think his condition is changed. I think it's war in
response to the criticism and saying, look, you know, we
don't want this to hang over the team. We're given
him the time that he needs and what he's ready,
he's ready until he is, We're going to give him
the time that he needs.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
Yeah, And my position on it artly remains the same
as it was last season. I tore my a cl
which obviously is a little months so it's probably different.
But I was saw like a year and a half after,
like after the surgery, uh, and I could do what
I could do everything else. I could play obviously for me,

(49:26):
it's it's it's football or soccer for you guys. But
I was able to play the only thing that changed
was that the day after I played it like it
felt like it tightened up like crazy, and it felt
like I couldn't move, not necessarily it's always really tight
and so and it felt like I had just I

(49:47):
don't know, lifted like five hundred kills or whatever it was.
And so that's my experience from it. My only.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Go on with it is.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
I want whatever makes it so taris it comes back
one hundred percent healthy. And I'm not too sold on
the And obviously i'm another doctor, so I don't know
if this is normal for what the type of injury
that he had. I'm not too sold on. See if
he can go, and if he can go, he will
go unless that's the prognostic for the rest of his career,
or unless that prognostic is not gonna change or have

(50:23):
impicked in the long term health. It's lower away. And
so to me, I'm that I'm a typically like this
in a lot of things in life. I'd rather have
it b one hundred percent than force it eighty percent.
But once again, I have no inside knowledge. I've read
doctor that I know, even I don't even know what's
going on with Turi himself. I do find it find

(50:45):
a little bit of I guess comfort in the fact
that Tari's mom on Twitter has said that that he's
not uncertain. I think that those were the words that
he used. I think someone said, I want me and
I'm starting to worry about ourson's wag or whatever it is,
and she said that she wasn't concerned. And so if

(51:05):
he's not, I think that she'd know as much as
as anybody. So that helped me a little bit as well,
because there's no one with there's nobody out there that
would be walking out for Tarry's future from a big
picture said one more than than his own mother. So
if he if he feels fine with it, I think
it's it's probably probably fine. And yeah, the only thing

(51:30):
I'd say is if he's not one hundred percent, I
would rather him not play than him play at eight
eighty or ninety percent. And I will say about the
doubtful that designation, I was god touch on it because
it it popped up as you were speaking. But I
do agree that it feels it feels safer or feels
better if if that's the designation rather than questionable, because

(51:53):
we over time kind of expect questionable players to play. Uh,
and so I think probably is the is the correct
way to go about it, so people don't think that
he's on the verge of coming back, because it's usually
tougher for someone to go from probable to available than
it is to questionable from questionable available. Usually, if it's probable,

(52:15):
it'll go to questionable right before the game or or
the day of the game, and then it'll be then
it will be available. If it's questionable, sometimes just to
day of the game, they change it around. I mean,
I think I think Ampony Davis and Lebron James are
permanently questionable for the last two years so and they
play most games. So yeah, I do agree with them

(52:35):
changing it's probable to nottrol to doubtful. Sorry, I said
probable a lot of the time. That meant doubtful every
single one of those. I'm sorry. It's the twenty a
GM here.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
I know what you mean, and I'll point out that
if Tari needs it. I don't think the schedule gets
consistently difficult when you book ahead or what the Rockets
have upcoming until the last ten days of January. Starting
the twenty second, You've got two games in a row
against Cleveland, You've got the Celtics You've got the Grizzlies.

(53:05):
You've got a back to back in New York against
the Knicks and the Nets. I know the Nets are terrible.
It's back to back. You've got then two road games
at Minnesota and Dallas. Those are the games of the
schedule is consistently difficult. It's a little more difficult now
than it has been. But there are also breather games
in there. The weekend games against the Celtics and Lakers.

(53:27):
They're difficult, but they are in Houston, and it's worth
noting the Celtics will be on night two of a
road back to back. Maybe that helps you. But then
after that Tuesday you play at Washington, the worst team
in the league. You also have games in the middle
of this month. I'm looking at the schedule against the Blazers,
the Kings, the Pistons, who just lost Jade n Ivy.
The schedule is not consistently difficult, So even if you

(53:50):
know there are some more difficult games, you have a
couple of games against the Grizzlies in there that could
be important for seeding. You've also got a back to
back against the Nuggets and Kings. It's not that the
Rockets are going to go on a long winning streak
that I expect them to because I don't. But I
also think there's enough you know, soft landing places in
there that I don't expect them to go on a

(54:12):
long losing streak either, even if there isn't tarr Ethan.
So because of that, if you need a couple more
weeks to be super conservative and let whatever inflammation is
built up die down, I think you can do that.
And if you tread water, you know, they're twenty two
to eleven now and just you know, tread water at
being you know, ten twelve games above five hundred before
you get into this more difficult stretch leading into the

(54:32):
trade deadline. I think that is completely fine, and as
long as his leg is ultimately healthy in the long run,
if anything, it might end up being a silver lining economically,
and that it gives you an opportunity to in send
to extend him at a slightly friendlier figure this off season.
We'll see, maybe Ti shoes to bet on himself given
these factors, and wait until after he has a healthier

(54:54):
year four two years since the surgery. Obviously, that's for
him to decide after the season. Priority one, right, now
is just getting back, but in terms of the long haul,
there could be potentially some benefits, which we've talked about
the pass in terms of the team building, and that
rings me to our final segment, my final resolution, which
is about not just the micro of the here and now,

(55:15):
what's coming up the next few games or weeks, but
the bigger picture of team building. My big resolution for
the Rockets in twenty twenty five. This is the year
that before this year is up, and probably before this
summer is up, they are going to have a perimeter
one A and it doesn't have to come externally. There's

(55:36):
still more than half of this season to go, so
maybe Jalen Green and men Thompson cam Whitmore, one of
those guys becomes much more consistent. But if it doesn't
happen internally, I think we are at a point now,
and even two months ago, I don't think the Rockets
were fully there, but we are at a point now
where both incentive and opportunity are in alignment, and that's

(55:58):
typically what it takes for a big trade in the
NBA to be worthwhile. I think you know, first and foremost,
you need incentive, and in past years, the Rockets just
haven't been close enough when it comes to the contending
window for it to be worth taking the risk of
dealing some young prospects before you fully know what their

(56:19):
long term value is going to be to push your
timetable forward the way it inevitably is when you acquire
a veteran who's a little bit older and closer to
you know, contractual uncertainty. The Rockets are twenty two and
eleven now, even with these clear flaws that we've discussed
in this pod and in recent episodes, they have the
second best defense in the league. It will not take

(56:42):
a lot to get them from where they are now
to a truly contending level. And so that's a form
of incentive that wasn't there even a few months ago.
When I think if you had asked us in you know, September,
prior to this season starting, we would have said it's
possible a big deal comes in twenty twenty five. But
the way this team is set up, with lots of
future assets, no big money on the books, they could

(57:05):
push it into twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven. No,
they're close enough now to where it's worthwhile, and there
is a cost to waiting. I think opportunity is not
a lengthy visitor. In the NBA the new CBA, it
can be tough to keep teams together, Injuries can happen,
there's all sorts of things. You can't take for granted
that you're going to be a title contender for five

(57:27):
ten plus years you'd like to be. But if you're
twenty two and eleven as is, and you have a
chance to get a lot better with a deal, that's
pretty powerful incentive. Now that the baseline is substantially higher
than it was even September twenty twenty four, let's say
the third or entering the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four,
So incentive is there. And then the other component is

(57:49):
opportunity because even if you have the incentive, well do
you have the assets? Well, ro could definitely have the
assets in terms of, you know, promising young players, draft
picks to make a deal work. But it also comes
down to are you desirable. Is the right player on
the market that makes sense for what you need and
makes sense for your organization, your city to where all
these things line up. That's why it's so tough to

(58:09):
see a big deal come together. Well, there are two guys.
I don't know if they're on the market literally right now,
but it's pretty clear that they could be in the
coming weeks or definitely months. And deeron Fox and Devin
book are teams that are going nowhere in a loaded
Western conference below five hundred, have no clear avenues to improve,
and I feel strongly that both of them will be

(58:32):
available to the Rockets at a reasonable asset cost, and
that the Rockets would not need to overpay their market
value by an extreme amount or take a risk on
them being unhappy. I think you know with dieron Fox
on the player side, he's a Houston native. Houston's a
better situation than Sacramento. The Rockets need a Leite guard
to pair with all for Ech and Goon, the fit

(58:53):
is clear. We've talked about it in previous posit I'm
sure we will again leading up to the tradeline. We
don't have to get into the particulars of that today,
but I just think when you look at everything lining up,
all the boxes are checked. When you look at Devin
Booker and the Phoenix Suns. I don't know about Booker's
interest in Houston specifically, but I know the Rockets interest
in Booker that's been more chronicled and more important. When
it comes to the opportunity angle, the Rockets have all

(59:17):
the Phoenix's future draft capital, or enough of it to
where there would be a powerful incentive for the Suns
to play ball with the Houston Rockets in this scenario.
So when you look at the marriage of incentive and opportunity,
the Rockets are incentivized. The opportunities are coming there on
the market, and the Rockets are close enough now that

(59:38):
one of these moves conceivably could, if not push them
over the top, get them really freaking close. I think
this is the year that it happens, not guaranteeing it,
because again there's still enough time on the schedule. We
saw how Jalen Green finished last year. Maybe something crazy
like that happens again. Maybe something happens internally toward the
Calculus ships. Maybe they go on a longer playoff run

(59:58):
than we expect and you don't need it. But I
just think that one way or another, by the end
of this year, when you consider how high the floor is,
how high the baseline is at present, when you consider
the opportunities they are emerging on the market, one way
or another. By the end of twenty twenty five, I
think the Rockets will have their perimeter one A to
pair with all per echin Goon. That's my resolution for

(01:00:20):
this team. That's what I think they need to do,
and I ultimately think it's what they will do. I
don't know if it will happen by the trade deadline.
My gut tells me that this off season is more realistic.
As we talked about in the past, teams tend to
be much more willing to make bigger deals, think bigger
picture in the off season than in terms of resolutions.
I'm more convinced than ever that calendar year twenty twenty
five at some point is the year Powell. What are

(01:00:41):
your thoughts on that as the timeline and are there
any other resolutions you'd like to throw out before we
wrap up the pod?

Speaker 4 (01:00:48):
Yeah, I think. As as far as the trade for
a star, i'm kopu, which I mean, if you recall
on on a previous spot, I said that the most
likely scenario was that we traded for someone. So usually
typically in the NBA, you should better on the start
of scull like seventy percent of the time, I'm saying
I'll give it higher than to two or odds that

(01:01:10):
that Rockets to make it trade for a start. This
is said, there's guys that perfectly fit both AH wise,
contract secuation wise, their team situation wise and position wise,
which is the most important for what the Rockets need
when they haven't booking and darn Fox, and there's other
guys that could get available. Not gonna, you know, say

(01:01:31):
it too early, but the Wolves are that spot. While
you know there's this, they very quickly within the Anthony
Edwards tenure as a player went all in and there's
nothing they can do to improve the team. I mean,
I also think even if there is a ek little
leap that you can still justify a straight like that.

(01:01:53):
It's just probably not for Devin Booker at all. He
could play with the shooting art. He is playing with
the shooting cut right now. How he has improved that
as a lead playmaker for their thoughts, just because I
guess my other hot tache is that I find it
very tough to have for it and will be the
starting point guard for for another season after this one,
even even this one until the end. It's just Listenforstone

(01:02:17):
was incredibly smart and giving him a two year contract
that an overpaid versus a longer deal on a lower
ever than all value, just because undersized guards as grizzy
as they might be, as as timpedup ProLiant as as
threat and let might be, and end that being, you know,
some of the last stuff to go athletic athleticism wise,

(01:02:38):
it's just you can't make a bed like the Rockets
have got into a point that they're good enough to
that they can't afford to be giving up as much
as they are by playing for it. And I think
I think he's probably worse than jail in Green right now. Ah,
And I'm sorry that that might be a hotache, but

(01:02:59):
I truly think he is. Uh and what that means
that you can still traight for one of the stars
even if Killen has a blossomy year end to some extent.
But I kind of before I get into it, I
only have one New Year's resolution for the Rockets. I
want to touch on two things before I get to that,

(01:03:20):
and one of them's a question that I want to
fire back to you. But the first one is it's
real these last few games, like the last seven games,
proved to me that we are really a contender adjacent
type team. We're not the Funder, We're not the Celtics
or not the Caves, but we are right below. Listen,

(01:03:45):
there's a lot of things that go into what a
great team is, right taking care of business against the
against the Pelicans, against the Raptors, against the Hornets, and
against the Pelicans again, in the ways that we did
like this, these weren't necessarily you know, close games. Uh,
I guess dropped. Everyone looks closer because we kind of

(01:04:08):
let go of the rope a little bit too early
and it got closer. But these are not close games.
And you know, good teams don't slip up against terrible competition,
and we didn't. And we might have lost the games
the Wolves, we might have lost the games that we dominated.
Those games we deserve to so to we deserve to

(01:04:29):
win those games. Massive fourth quarter collapse, you know, it
cancels and now there's no silver linings on for a contender.
But it further shows me that we are this. We're not.
It's not chocoluk, it's not it's not an I guess,
it's not non sustainable effort.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
We play like we don't have We didn't have a
men thumps and against the Mavericks. Granted they didn't have
uh Luca, but we don't have a mentum two. We
didn't have for reason war massive parts of our game.
Dylan Green didn't have an outstanding game for them, we
have an awful game. We won't anyways, it doesn't matter.
And so just to say that I think we're we're
truly here, We're right and listen us being this good

(01:05:15):
while shooting this spoorly from three makes me think that
we're here for the long run unless for you know,
the next half a decade at the very least, unless
some crazy injuries happen or something wild like what happened
with Damar and the Grizzlies, and even them have been
coming back now that guys you know playing and they
have the entire the team together. Sorry for the rent.

(01:05:37):
My question back to you is, if it's Taron Fox
or Dylan Brooks, it more than likely doesn't mean going
all in from the perspective of spending you know, basically
every asset doing eight A Eightimberwolves, that deal, right, Tillie.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Aaron Fox or Javin Booker? Right?

Speaker 4 (01:05:55):
Who did I say?

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
You said? Dylan Brooks what do you do? I assume
you meant Devin book.

Speaker 4 (01:06:00):
That's my bade. I meant Devin Booker or d Aaron Fox.
I'm sorry for confusing name, and I guess I'm the
oldest twenty three year old in the world. What I
wanted to ask is, you know, if it's if it's
Den Booker or the Aaron for Hawks, it's only means
that we're not going to be giving up, you know,
the entire Raiders chest of assets. We could There's even

(01:06:23):
arguments that could be made that giving if we gave
up some more key players, that we could even get
both and still have, you know, change Gun and me
and Thompson. I guess my question is where are you
in regards to a situation where maybe you can do
what the Timberwolves did you hold on to? You know,
let's call it Shane Goon and the men. But you

(01:06:44):
give up, you know, you give up Read, you give
up him with more, give up Jale and they give
up all of the suns picks, all of the Rocket's
own picks that they do still own. If you can
get Booker and an older guy, I like, if imagine
I can get Booker and Katie are you ready to
pull that trader or would you rather half measure it

(01:07:05):
and go for a young star and keep building this
thing more sustainably versus you know just I think probably
if you if you don't make it right for Booker
and Katie, I think it probably jumps straight into the
forefront of that tier above us. But how do you
feel about the two scenarios an opportunity arises, which one

(01:07:27):
would you go for?

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
I'll be honest, I would rather just Devin Booker. Now
that's not to say I'm closed off to like a
super team scenario where it's Booker and KD. Because if
the alternative is to not get Booker or someone in
that tier, then yeah, upgrading the Jalen Green spot or
the fred In Fleet spot, whatever you want to call
it to a proven one a perimeter star, that's worthwhile.

(01:07:52):
But I would rather do it without compromising the sustainability
and the formula that's already proven to have this this
really high forward, because I agree with you, there's nothing
in these games, even the ones the Rockets lost on
night too back to back to play, as well as
the data against Minnesota, they look like they belonged against
the Timorrowle's scene that was playing really hard and has
been close to its best over the last week or so,

(01:08:13):
even though they've gotten off to a bad start. I
think we all know that's a really talented roster. Probably
a little bit worse with losing Cat for Julius Randall,
but not terribly worse by any stretch. I think what
stands out to me about this year's Rockets above everything else,
they belong. There are very few moments, very few games
where they look out classed, and so because of that,

(01:08:34):
my strong preference would be to upgrade one of the
clear deficiencies without dramatically changing the formula of this team
and the sustainability. Because having guys like Kim Whitmore and
eventually Read Shepherd to plug and play when there's an
injury like what's happened recently with Tari, why haven't the
Rockets suffered? In large part, it's because you've had Kim
Whitmore waiting in the wings, and he's stepped into many

(01:08:56):
of those vacated minutes Jay Shauntade as well having guys
further down the roster. The depth, especially in a sport
that has eighty two games, it has all these back
to backs, it's really important. So my preference, with the
baseline as high as it is, would be to get
the young star without going all the way in. Now,
with that said, if it's a scenario where you know

(01:09:18):
Booker wants to go with KD and you can only
get both or none, and there's not an alternative like
the Aaron Fox or someone else that can fill that role,
then again it's a sliding scale. I'm not saying I'm
totally closed off to you know, the more all in
try and jump immediately to the thunder Celtics tier. But

(01:09:40):
my preference, I've seen enough and I believe enough in Rafelstone,
Patrick Ursida, Eli White, is what that front office is doing,
the sustainability, the picks they have moving forward, the young players,
the assets. I would rather improve when the clear deficiencies
and leave a pipeline for further growth moving forward, to
keep this thing viable for five ten plus years.

Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
That's my preference, right, I'll art worldly with you. I
think one of the most common mistakes of the modern
NBA is teams are so eager to become a super
team that they forget that a lot of like you
don't really out sell like I think the last team
that was good enough to out talent their way into
a championship was the Nets, and they fell apart because

(01:10:19):
of injuries. Because besides that, fit matters a lot, and
I do think that Katie is a great fit here,
as would be Devin Booker. But there's always struggles that
you can only you know that you don't see coming.
And there's always needs that a team has player wise
that you only really notice once you're playing the games.

(01:10:41):
And so because of that, I'm really a gamest trades
that leave you completely barren of assets, and so I
would much rather have one star and some leeway, even
if it's not enough to get a third star, but
it's enough to get a couple of really good role
players to get for Rockets, right to get your Robert Covington,

(01:11:02):
for example, when the Rockets were in the position to
get Robert Covington, they have to give up Quinn Cappella
because if you didn't have the assets to get Robert
Covington in any other way. And so the equivalent of
that right now would be, well, yes, you keep Shangun
and you keep a man fumed, and then you bring
those two guys in but all of a sudden, if
you want to make a trade, the only guy would

(01:11:23):
have some value that you have left is Dylan Brooks.
And you're like, well, now, if I want to go
get a guy that fits better, I have to give
up Dylan Brooks. And I kind of meet Dylan Brooks
and he was a key part of eight year is
a key part of the team because like Cappella was
with in the game, soodand years and so yeah, just
moral of the story. I'll not try to just take
it incrementally, especially because there's an argument to be made

(01:11:48):
that just Kevin Devin book or just getting there, we'll
get us that year and what KD you will take
us over those other teams is probably not worth sacrificing
the long haul because winship in the NBA it's not
really just about being the best team. I'd rather be
an a level team for six And this is something

(01:12:09):
that I've only recently started leaking force. I used to
be more about being all in or brought me up.
I'd rather be an e teen. Well, let me put
the caveat in there. As long as there's no dynasty,
as long as there's no Warriors, there's no chiefs, where
there's no the astros of past years. I'd rather be
an A team for six years than be an A

(01:12:31):
plus team for two years and then have to completely
rebuild again because within the current landscape of the NBA
that there are any super teams. You need to be
really good, but you need to be really good continually
because things happen. Listen, the Sixers have been really good
for a really long time. They can make it work
because indeed there's things in the playoffs or interned by
the then they get there and so you need everything

(01:12:53):
to align in order for it to result in a championship.
And so within that lot, that would be Ana for
six years. And you know, depending on how on what happens,
maybe eighteen star becomes available and you make a supperteam
that way for a deeper price. But I will just
close it off with my other tike, my other resolutionariss Man.

(01:13:19):
We were we've been really good at developing young players.
As far as the defense goes. Everybody has improved massively.
And it's not just a system thing. It's a one
on one different thing. It's it's you know, communication thing
like you watch some of these you know mic up
moments and you watch some of these uh just you know,

(01:13:39):
things that get picked up by the camera's card side.
And even Killen Green has become a tremendous communicator on defense.
And you cannot tell me that if you went to
a team like I don't know, the Pistons or worse
franchise without the made look and guys and the guys,
you would make that lead because Killn is a scoring guard, right,
Killn becoming a really good municator around defense and a

(01:14:01):
really you know, active communicator aro on defense is not
something you expect you're scoring guard, but it's something that helps.
And when earlier in the review we talked about them
not communicating on defense being a massive problem. And so
there's a lot of things that you don't totally show
up in the type or don't really show up in
the sad sheet that Rockets have been really good at developing.

(01:14:23):
What they have not been really good at developing whatsoever
is shooting, Like there's no there's been nobody that has
come onto this team and has been better at tuting
that than they were expected to be. And for most
of the guys, they haven't been as good at tuding
as good at tuting as they were expected to be
considering their draft profile. Joan Winn's as underperformed massively. Javari

(01:14:44):
has under perform slightly, although it has come back towards
a little bit more reason. Probably the closest one to
what you expected. Opproaching Gun. It looked like he was
developing it. It's back to terrible twenty two percent, something
of the sort. I mean, Thompson looks like he is
the opening yet, but it's really he's really not a shooter. Yeah,
waste to go read Chepherd, but I'm not gonna it's

(01:15:06):
too early to tell. But it's not like it never
happens to us. What happens to the other team where
a guy comes in and he's instantly efficient, Like we
don't get it at Alton the next type, even real
Chappard who were supposed to be awesome off the ghetto,
just terrific shooter. No Ti Maori Smith, Nope, doesn't happen
to us. My New Year's resolution is can we in
no bend? Is it?

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (01:15:27):
Ben Johnson or Bench Sullivan? Benjamin's don't detroyed by side,
Ben Sullivan. It was supposed to be your shooting guru, listen,
I don't know. Maybe workers. My resolution is, can we
please get better at teaching Uce how to shoot? It
would help tremendously. Thank you very much, have a good year.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Same to you, and I will say on a positive
note to wrap up, the pie can't wit more. His
form looks a lot better. I mean, obviously we're all
a prisoner to results in the moment, but his mechanics
look a lot cleaner. Now you can question how much
is the rockets versus how much is you know the
G League staff. I guess that's a distinction you can
try and make. But I do think there's been clear growth,

(01:16:08):
and I think Sims he's come back. He's shooting right
at about forty percent from three, so knock on wood,
Hopefully that continues and maybe he ends up being the
shooter that we wanted to develop internally. Because to circle
back to the point on team building, as we close
this out, I'm in complete agreement with you that an
A level team for six years is better than an
A plus for two or three, especially in the modern

(01:16:29):
MBA where the new CBA is making it very difficult
to keep these super teams together. And so when you
look at the competition, it makes more sense to go
for the longer window, to give yourself the most bites
at the apple, if you will. But then the one
argument that I don't like, and we see this more
with Deer and Fox, because it's natural to, you know,
make these comparisons vallprinching Goon to Demontes Sabonis and say, well,

(01:16:52):
if the Kings couldn't get over the hump with that duo,
how could the Rockets? And I just firmly reject that
because the baseline of this team, when you look at
Amen Thompson, Tarry Easton Kim, what were the depth of
options that they have up and down this roster, and
know you not to give close to all of them
up to bring in a guy like the Iarin Fox,
there's upper mobility in a way that a franchise like

(01:17:14):
the Kings has never had, especially when you combine it
with ima Udoka at how talented this defense is, the
collective buy in the culture, then that number two in
the league pretty much the entire year. It's just an
apples to oranges comparison. When you look at what Fox
has done with Demante Simonis the last few years with
the now fired Mike Brown and the Kings. I just

(01:17:34):
don't like that comparison at all. Don't want to get
two in the weeks on that, because we'll talk more
deeron Fox in the week's leading up to the trade deadline,
Stay tuned. Just using that as as an opportunity to
make a more general observation, which is that most of
the comparisons that you're seeing, oh, like it's jeron Fox
if he can't get the Kings over the hump, or
if the Suns are struggling, like this is Devin Booker
worth it. It's always or usually at apples to oranges comparison.

(01:18:00):
When you look at the advantages the Rockets have in place,
the surrounding infrastructure is really really good, even with clear
flaws that we know they need to upgrade with hopefully
that perimeter one A. But up and down the roster,
there's a lot to like here. And so because of that,
I tend to be of the belief that you know,
upgrade the deficiency and lean on the culture the collective,

(01:18:25):
buy in what you've already built, and use that to
hopefully get you over the hump and give you a longer,
more sustainable window moving forward. Anyway, That's where we'll wrap
things for today. We'll have more specific talk about trade
targets in the coming weeks as far as any big
name possibilities smaller ones. The rumors tend to pick up
more in the last couple of weeks leading up to
the deadline, which again this year is Thursday, February sixth,

(01:18:48):
So we'll talk more about that as January progresses, and
you know, we'll learn a little bit more I think,
in the days ahead about how close or not close
tarr Esen is to returning, because perhaps that influence is
what they look forw or need at the deadline as
well when we look at making the current version of
the Rockets more competitive in the playoffs, which is where
I think we agree that, barring some sort of radical

(01:19:11):
downturn in their play or catastrophic injury, is where where
they're bound. This is a very good basketball team, and
what we've seen over the recently completed holidays only confirms
what I think is the most important takeaway from really
this past month or so. If Houston Rockets basketball day belong,
that hot start to the year was not a fluke.
They are showing you with each passing game that they

(01:19:32):
are legitimate. And again, as you mentioned, they're doing this
with three point shooting that's second to last in the league.
Just imagine if that ever comes around. I know it
feels like we've said that for a while, but God,
even last year they weren't this bad. So even a
little bit of upperbability in the shooting can offset a
little bit of slippish or injury somewhere else. Anyway, on
that optimistic note, that's where we will leave things until

(01:19:52):
our next episode, and if you want more content before then,
the best place to get that is online. You can
follow me on Twitter x at Bindubo's polow at Paolo
Alf's NBA, and the show at the logger line where
if you go to the logger lines page you can
find our link tree that's got links to all our
distribution partners Apple, Google, Spotify. If you be kind to
subscribe Leaf Positure Review at the location of choice, obviously
we would appreciate that. And also on that same link tree,

(01:20:14):
you've got links to friends sponsor's partners with the program,
USA Today's Rockets, Mark Our Bay Browing, Sports Talk seven
ninety have those links and you can enjoy their content
as well, so with those flugs complete, we'll journ for
tonight for Paolo. I'm Ben. Thanks as always for listening,
and please come back soon for another new episode of
the Logger Line, Go Rockets.

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